When Councilmember Margaret Chin called on Tommy Loeb last night at the mayor’s town hall she called him “The man with the pink sticker.” That’s because Tommy — a long-time resident of East River Coop — was there at Caroline and Lee’s request to ask the Mayor for a traffic agent to be stationed at the intersection of Grand and Clinton to help alleviate the dangerous driving and incessant honking that comes from this access route to the Williamsburg Bridge.
This is what can happen when everyone works together — local elected officials who have already raised the issue with the Department of Transportation, almost 600 local residents who have signed a petition to close the Clinton Street approach to the bridge, and then one local resident to push the issue right to the mayor.
DOT Commissioner Polly Trachtenberg acknowledged there is a broader study underway to examine the entire traffic pattern from the FDR to the Williamsburg Bridge, which is absolutely necessary. But that sort of study and implementation can take years. It’s already been years since the traffic on Grand became intolerable. Caroline and Lee thought there was something that could be done right now, and asked Tommy to bring their request to the mayor.
